Lady Skippers travel well; beat East Bridgewater on road

Thursday

Sep 27, 2007 at 12:01 AMSep 27, 2007 at 10:12 PM

The Cohasset High School girls soccer team defeated East Bridgewater 2-0 on the road Tuesday improving its overall record to 3-3.

Joel Racicot

The Cohasset High School girls soccer team defeated East Bridgewater 2-0 on the road Tuesday improving its overall record to 3-3. They are now 3-1 in the South Shore League with the only loss coming in a 1-0 match against Norwell last Wednesday.The Lady Skippers played at Carver Thursday after the Mariner went to press. They play next at home against an improved Hull team Monday, October 1. Game time is 6:30 p.m.Coach Deb Beal packed the midfield against the Lady Vikings, playing three back with no sweeper, a strategy that worked well for Cohasset. “It relies heavily on the players taking care of one small part of the field and communicating well,” she said.After battling to a 0-0 tie in the first half, the team decided to stick with the style of play for the second half. It worked, thanks in part to Kaci Kucinski, a freshman burner who scored both Lady Skippers goals in the second half. She now leads the team with four tallies.“She is just fast,” Beal said. “She lost the defender both times and didn’t have a player in front of her, it was nice to see.”Cohasset stayed defensive minded and controlled the ball on offense to secure the big road victory.“It was huge,” Beal said. “If we don’t drop the ball anywhere else we can still compete for the league title.”Meg Anderson missed the game due to an injury and was replaced by Meredith Kelly on defense. Kelly missed a good portion of the season already because she was sick and played exceptional in the fill in role against the Lady Vikings. Kelly was slotted to start the season in the back and was replaced by Anderson when she couldn’t go. If this trend ends and both players can get healthy, then the Lady Skippers should add some depth and experience to the backfield.“I asked her (Kelly) if she was feeling better,” Beal said, “she said ‘I feel a lot better.”’Christine Coner played well against East Bridgewater but couldn’t manage to find the back of the net. She hit the post twice and nailed the cross bar. The sophomore forward looked good on offense and Beal hopes she will stay aggressive.Torey Hart, Sarah Coggins and Kristin Monaco continue strong play. Hart moved to midfield from forward to give a veteran presence in the middle. Johanna Brofy notched the shutout in net, making one “phenomenal save” according to Beal but was relatively untested for most of the game, thanks to the solid defensive effort by Cohasset.Cohasset Soccer NotesLooking back on the Norwell game it wasn’t hard to tell where Coach Beal was coming from with her post game comments.“I need to stress to them this is just a game like every other game,” she said following the 1-0 loss to the Lady Clippers. “When we go into East Bridgewater to play Tuesday it’s the same game just because it is Norwell doesn’t make a difference.”She was right. The girls proved they could go on the road and beat a tough team in league (East Bridgewater) but that mental edge Norwell holds on Cohasset seems to creep in, even though the talent level of late is even. Cohasset tied Norwell twice last year but they haven’t beaten them in 11 years. They have been outscored 68-10 over that period.That puts things in perspective about how good Cohasset has played over the last two seasons. Now they just need to learn how to win.Cohasset gets another shot at Norwell at home Thursday, October 11. It’s likely they will have to beat them to get any shot at the South Shore League crown; something Norwell has won four straight seasons.